


She Saw The Beauty In Everything

by CarthagoDelenda



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Childbirth discussion, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 20:38:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3664155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarthagoDelenda/pseuds/CarthagoDelenda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Pearl, do you know what happens when a baby is born?”</p><p>“H-huh?” Pearl wished she could’ve seemed less startled at Rose’s question. There was little hope of hiding her emotional responses, even at the best of times… but there hadn’t been any fear of that to begin with. Rose hadn’t turned to look at her. She was still facing the thorn bush, absently running her finger over the vines. “Well, why are you asking?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Saw The Beauty In Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I've had this idea in mind for a little while, and I kinda needed to get it out of my system. I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Warning this is super goofy and fluffy like no one's business and then also sad

“Pearl, do you know what happens when a baby is born?”

“H-huh?” Pearl wished she could’ve seemed less startled at Rose’s question. There was little hope of hiding her emotional responses, even at the best of times… but there hadn’t been any fear of that to begin with. Rose hadn’t turned to look at her. She was still facing the thorn bush, absently running her finger over the vines. “Well, why are you asking?”

“Oh, was that too sudden?” Rose lifted her hand off the leaf, and set it on her stomach. “I suppose it was kind of a strange question.”

“No, no no, it’s not, it’s…” Pearl wished she hadn’t spoken, not when she didn’t know what to say next, but in that moment of weakness she found herself babbling. “If I were to answer it accurately, then I’d need to know whether you were testing my knowledge, or simply informing me, or…” She laughed. “Or, well, I know you’re not the one _asking_ me…”

“Pearl.” Rose turned her head, smoothly moving her curls across the back of her neck.  “It’s alright.”

Her smile always did make Pearl feel as though her body was melting away, and this time was no different. “Yes. Of course.”

“Well, do you know? That’s all I asked.” She finished turning around, slowly and deliberately, and set both her hands on her stomach. Her _pregnant_ stomach.

 _Pregnant_. It was difficult for Pearl to wrap her head around.

“Ah, no.” Her eyes darted briefly toward Rose, then back at the ground. “I’m aware of what you’ve told me about…the certain delicate biological processes, but as for the birth itself…”

“Pearl, come sit with me.” Rose lowered herself gently onto the grass, and patted the spot to her right.

Pearl stepped forward and sat without hesitation. Notwithstanding that she was their leader, and that any word of hers was law… well, given where she sat, even if they weren’t touching, she could still feel the warmth radiating from Rose’s body. And even that was enough to help her imagine what it might be like to get even closer.

“You can’t remember anything from before you were born, right, Pearl?” Rose said.

“Of…course not.” Pearl tried not to sound confused.

“Neither can I, and neither will he. But while we were never aware of anything at all before our births,  Steven…” She lifted her hand back up to her gem. “He has just the tiniest bit of awareness. He knows he’s somewhere warm, and wet, and dark. And that warmth, and that wet, it’s the only thing he’s ever known. For all he knows, he was always there, and he has no concept of anything that might be outside…”

There were things Pearl was asking herself, things she would never say to Rose Quartz. Things like, _why would a baby need to be wet?_ or _How can you be aware of anything that happened before you were fully formed?_ But there was no need to question Rose. If she was telling Pearl something, then it had to be right. She smiled, and she nodded.

“But when he’s born, when any human’s born...” She hesitated for a moment. “They’re weak. Impossibly weak. Even a newborn Gem could live entirely on her own if need be, but a human…” She shuddered. “They need to be fed, and cleaned, and kept warm and healthy, and they can’t do a single one of these things for themselves…”

“Rose…” Pearl reached out, ready to wipe away any tears that Rose might shed - but she didn’t, though Pearl was sure she’d come close. She settled for touching her arm. “I-I’m…”

“Oh, Pearl.” Rose turned and smiled at her. “I’m alright. Really.”

“You’re sure,” Pearl said.

“I’m very sure.” She looked away again, back down at her stomach - back down at Steven - and Pearl could swear her smile had gotten stronger. “Because…even if they’re weak, even if they have to leave somewhere warm and safe and enter a cold, bright, dry, and unfamiliar world… do you know what it is that every single human being does the moment they’re born?”

Even after living among humans for five thousand years, Pearl couldn’t give her an answer. “What…do they do?”

“They let out the most marvellous scream.”

A chill ran down Pearl’s back. “A _scream?”_

“A scream! Louder than anything you’ve ever heard in your life!” Rose’s grin spread from ear to ear, and she laughed briefly to herself. “From the second they can breathe, until someone can take care of them… oh, Pearl, isn’t it _beautiful_?”

Pearl forced a grimace - her head was full now of what the screaming might sound like, and it was far from beautiful. “I…I can see why you’d think so…” _Because you do find beauty in everything,_ she didn’t add. “But… I don’t know. Why?”

“Because they’re fighting, Pearl.” “No matter how weak they are, no matter how difficult it is for them in the beginning, they know how to _want._ They know how to _persevere._ They have _passion,_ Pearl. Without something to strive for, anyone would stagnate…but a human, a human struggles from the beginning. They continually improve themselves for the sake of survival, to make what they can of their…their limited time on Earth…”

Now Pearl could see a tear in her eye, but Rose brushed it away before she could. “Just look at how much they’ve changed in the short time we’ve been here,” she said. “And all the while, we’ve just stayed the same…”

Pearl held her breath, waiting for Rose to follow up her statement, but a heavy silence seemed to have fallen over the entire garden. Even the bugs were silent, and not a single wind stirred the trees. Pearl’s own mind seemed to be full of questions, and doubts, but before she could vocalize any of them…

A pair of warm, soft arms pulled her in, enveloping her in the same warmth she’d loved even at a distance.

“They’re more valuable than you think, Pearl,” she said. “Always be good to him. Please.”

“H-huh…?” Pearl smiled, and stretched her own arms out around Rose, hopeless as they were to give her the same kind of hug. “Of course I will,” she said. “Anything for  -”

A sudden sharp pressure on her abdomen froze her mid-word. “Eeegh…”

“Oh - Pearl, did you feel that?” Rose pulled away slightly, but still stayed close, looking down at her stomach. “He’s kicking. You felt it, right?”

“Ah, well-” Pearl didn’t have the time - or the will - to refuse. Rose took her by the hand, and placed that hand right to the left of her gem.

“Here you go,” she said. “Once he gets active, he’ll usually… there. Did you feel that?”

“O-oh…” Pearl shuddered, still unused to the pressure. But, now that she was expecting it… it wasn’t nearly as strange, or unnatural, as she assumed it might be. There really was a being in there. Inside her friend. A being that could feel, and think…

“He’s saying hello,” Rose said, with a smile. “I can tell he can’t wait to meet you.”

“Oh, well…” If it made Rose nearly that happy, there was no way Pearl could help being happy herself. That, after all, was what love was about. Bringing happiness to one another, even in the strangest of ways. “Then I can’t wait to meet him, either.”

===

And two months later, she did meet him. He screamed when he was born, just as his mother had said, and it was the most horrible noise Pearl had ever heard.

Pearl had screamed, too, not long after he’d been born. But Rose didn’t hear her, or Steven, either.

And it wouldn’t be the last time she’d scream, or that Steven would, but as the years melted by the screams gave way to laughter, then to senseless baby-babble that one day formed itself into words. Just as Rose had said, he’d been born weak and powerless, and needed close care and attention to thrive. But he had thrived, and he grew bolder and stronger with every day that passed…

 _“They know how to want,”_ his mother had said. _“They know how to persevere. They have passion, Pearl.”_ And even on the days when his behavior would tend toward the ridiculous, when he’d pester her about his ‘anime cartoons’ or attempt to convince her that his dad really had done something amazing… well, as long as she could remember Rose’s words, then no matter what the situation, she could try to see something close to beauty in humanity.

But then, perhaps, she hadn’t needed the help.


End file.
